— SS oe ce EE Patent Tp 8 PAM OO Sere MS BR ade FD ‘Gloves are off’ says Fed president Kinnaird Federation maps campaign on Bill 46 Calling Bill 46 ‘‘another step in the government’s plan to weaken the ‘€ntire labor movement,’’ a Special strategy conference of the BC. Federation of Labor last week Mapped its campaign in opposition to the legislation, outlining plans for the formation of a Federation Public Sector Committee, and pro- test rallies in several centres throughout the province. The conference, held last Friday, was the latest response by the Federation. to Bill 46, the West Kootenay Schools Collective Bargaining Assistance Act, and the ominous addition to it, extending essential services legislation to cover all employees of public schools, universities, colleges and regional and water improvement districts. The legislation was ostensibly in- troduced to legislate an end to the strike-lockout by non-teaching employees in West Kootenay schools but the accompanying amendment, extending the scope of the existing Essential Services Disputes Act demonstrated the government’s intent to use the West Kootenay dispute to strip more public sector workers of collective bargaining rights. Earlier, following passage of the legislation in an emergency session of the legislature Dec. 8, Federation president Jim Kinnaird declared: “The gloves are off ... They are trying to eliminate the whole collec- tive bargaining process in the public sector.”’ see LABOR COMMENT pg. 16 The program mapped by last Fri- day’s special conference will now go to a staff representativees meeting, including representatives of all af- filiates scheduled for January 5, 1979. Although the Federation policy on the Essential Services Disputes Act, adopted by the 1977 conven- tion calls for the convening of a special convention in the event of the legislation being used or extend- ed, Federation officers stated that the urgency of action prompted the staff conference instead. Going to that conference will be recommendations for the formation of a Public Sector Committee, ap- pointed by the executive council and including representatives from all public service unions, including the B.C. Government Employees Union, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees and. represen- tatives from each labor council. BCGEU general secretary John Fryer is expected to chair the com- mittee. In addition to carrying out the Federation’s program in opposition to Bill 46, the committee will work with the Canadian Labor Congress on bargaining legislation in the public-sector and will report to the 1979 Federation convention. Protest rallies in several centres, including Vancouver, Victoria, Kelowna, Nelson, Terrace, Prince George and Kamloops are to be organized in conjunction with local labor councils, with participation extended to include representatives of non-affiliated public sector unions. A coordinator is to be hired - to assist in organizing the rallies. See BCTF page 13 INSIDE & © SOLIDARITY: Its always hard to be on strike i but the solidarity of working people all across Canada is mak- ing this Christmas a meaningful one for the embattled INCO strikers, Page 15. } @ POVERTY: A very un- : usual contest has given the 110,000 people in B.C. On income assistance a i rare opportunity to speak : e about poverty, page @ NEW YEAR’S RESOLU- TIONS: Cartoonist Dave Lane takes a humorous look at what we can ex- pect from some well known figures in 1979, page 7. en Hewison removed from fishery talks The United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union have angrily rejected the demand of federal fisheries minister Romeo LeBlanc to’ remove secretary - treasurer George Hewison as the union representataive to the Canada-U.S., negotiations for an agreement on a reciprocal salmon treaty and on maritime boundaries. The union received a telegram from LeBlanc firing Hewison at 4:30 p.m. last Friday, only.a few hours after Hewison spoke to a mass rally of. 600 fishermen and supporters~ at® -Vancouvers Queen Elizabeth Playhouse to protest what the union called ‘‘an imminent sellout of Canada’s fishery resources.” The mass rally, followed by a march to the offices of the depart- ment of fisheries in downtown Van- couver, did, however, succeed in stalling the hand of the government which was reportedly about to sign a treaty with the U.S. on reciprocal salmon rights. Spokesmen for the Canadian negotiators were quoted Monday as saying that no agree- ment would be reached before the end of the year. LeBlanc claimed that Hewison’s See STRATEGY page 3 Union demands Ottawa proscribe use of SIN’s TORONTO — The president of the 20,000 member United Elec- trical, Radio and Machine Workers Union (UE), C. S. Jackson, has demanded that prime minister Trudeau ‘‘immediately introduce legislation and enshrine in law the restricted use of the Social In- surance Number (SIN), except for the express purposes for which it was designed, namely income tax, unemployment insurance, man- power registration, Canada pension plan and old age security.”’ The demand follows an applica- tion to the Ontario Supreme Court by the union requesting an injunc- tion against Canadian General Elec- Tribune sub rates hiked As the Tribune announced last week, starting January 1, 1979 our subscription rates will be hiked up to $10 per year and our single price copy will rise to 25c. But for the 300 or so of our } : readers that will greet the new year _ with their subscription already due for renewal, a one month period of grace will be granted to renew your sub at the old rate. From February 1, however, all subscription renewals will be at the new rate. tric from requiring its employees to wear an identification badge that contains a workers name, photograph and SIN. The day after the union filed suit, the company announced that it would make the SIN badges ‘voluntary’, but. UE is not satisfied with the company response because it places the onus on the in- dividual employee and would re- quire the worker to confront management. ‘““We want the company to cancel the plan altogether because we think it is a serious invasion of privacy and a violation of civil and democratic rights,’’ UE secretary Val Bjarnason said. The union is also disatisfied with the response from employment minister Bud Cullen, the minister responsible for SIN, who told Parliament last week that a commit- tee would be established to study the matter in 1979. ‘‘That falls short of the mark and does nothing to allay the legitimate fears of Canadians that SIN is being used for surreptitious purposes,’’ Jackson said. ““Nobody,’’ the union told Trudeau, ‘‘including corporations, governments and other agencies should have access to the personal life history of Canadians. We de- mand you act to right this wrong now.”’ A ¥. “Young” ommunist cague eo 1055 ~~ “ ». stoseu ps CHANGE COVERNNEN NOT =f CIC. RE uta Young cague Gommunist Members of the Young Communist League picketed the regional offices of the Unemployment Insurance Commission in downtown Vancouver Thursday, protesting the federal government's announc- ed changes to UIC regulations and demanding government action to create jobs. —Sean Griffin photo Cullen should resign declares YCL leader TORONTO — Bud: Cullen has no alternative other than to resign as federal employment minister, Mike Gidora, general secretary of the Young Communist League said Dec. 8 following Cullen’s attack on jobless young people in a Commons committee debate discussing proposed amend- ments to the Unemployment In- surance Act. : Cullen’s statements that he hopes that the young people of Canada move ‘‘all over the country and even outside of the country in order to find employment”’ in response to claims that young people were being forced to leave their home towns to find work, destroy’s whatever shred of credibility he had as employment minister,’’ Gidora charged. “Tt is not for nothing that Cullen has earned the title of Minister of Unemployment during his tenure in this most important of cabinet portfolios’? the YCL secretary added. Gidora charged that Cullen’s at- tacks on the unemployed young people of Canada, which included among other things statements to the effect that young people would rather ‘‘collect unemployment in- surance and suck their thumbs’? than look for work, are part of both an ongoing attack on the victims of futile government policy and pre- election posturing designed to prove that the Liberals are “‘getting tough with UIC ripoffs.’’